


i like you fine

by lostnfound14



Series: not your friend, not your enemy [4]
Category: Sex Education (TV)
Genre: Angst, Consensual Underage Sex, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Multiple Sclerosis, Soft Ruby, cuteness, olivia is a good friend!, soft otis, the rest is pretty pg except for some swear words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:54:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24276934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostnfound14/pseuds/lostnfound14
Summary: Ruby experiences an emotional roller coaster, and Otis is along for the ride.(Read the first three parts of the series before this one.)
Relationships: Otis Milburn/Ruby (Sex Education)
Series: not your friend, not your enemy [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610161
Comments: 46
Kudos: 175





	i like you fine

**Author's Note:**

> it has officially been months. and i came back to write for these two again. if anyone asks, it was the extreme boredom that motivated me. corona has been good for one thing and that is free time. so anyway, i'm sorry for not writing and posting this sooner. but now was the perfect time to write it, imo. anyway, this one's a wild ride. i hope y'all enjoy this :)
> 
> (p.s. this first scene is for that one commenter who asked me, "when are they going to fuck again?" bless you. lmao)

After the first time, the last thing Ruby would have expected is a reprisal of sex with Otis. But then he turned out to be a great guy, a guy that she wants to kiss and be soft with. A guy who makes her feel spine-tinglingly good. A guy who knows a few tricks.

That’s not to say Otis is a sex god. No, he’s still a little bit of a bumbler, still prone to asking if she’s okay (his record of holding back from asking so far is two minutes). 

However, on this long-awaited second occasion, as sensations are reaching a peak, he adds to the sheer pleasure of him filling her up by rubbing his thumb against her clit. The ministrations send a chill down her spine and make her arch her back in surprised satisfaction, panting and on the edge of orgasm. It’s like nothing she’s experienced before.

“I’m gonna…” she huffs as Otis continues thrusting into her and teasing her clit.

“Yeah?” He breathes, sounding equally as spent, and looking to be on the verge himself. There’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead and he’s biting his lip with a vengeance, probably trying to keep in an ugly grunt.

 _“Make me come,_ ” she begs, digging her nails into his back and gripping him for leverage as she teeters over the edge. Otis doesn’t respond, instead picking up the pace of both his thrusting and rubbing. Chills rack her body, while her skin feels like it’s on fire. She’s...

With a final few thrusts, Ruby comes. She cries out with the release, her legs quaking uncontrollably, and Otis reaches his own orgasm an instant later. He retracts from within her and flops down onto his bed beside her. 

“Oh, shit,” she hears him say as she’s looking up at his ceiling and breathing hard. She snaps her head to the side and sees him about to fall off the edge of his bed. She grabs his gangly arm as a reflex and pulls him back toward her. _That’s what you get for sleeping on a twin,_ she thinks with a smirk. 

“Nice one,” she quips, still gripping his arm gently. Otis laughs in the way that one does when they just barely avoid danger, like a car barreling toward them on the street or a foot slipping on the way down a set of stairs.

“Thanks for the save,” he says, turning onto his side to look at her straight on. She looks back up at the ceiling, feeling heat rush to her cheeks. 

“Got you any time,” she replies softly.

They lie in silence for a moment. Ruby doesn’t want to have the last word, so she asks him, “Where’d you learn that trick?”

“What trick?” He asks dumbly, and when she turns back to look at him purposefully, he lifts a hand to scratch at the back of his neck. “Um… I don’t know.”

“Don’t be ashamed,” she says, punching him gently in the chest. 

His mouth opens and closes a few times, like a fish flopping around in a bucket. “The internet,” he admits quietly. 

“Done your research, have you?” She asks, grinning. 

“Can we be done talking about this?” He challenges. Ruby notes the flickering of nerves in his eye. Right. She’s had to remind herself that he’s not like the jocks she’s jumped, and he’s not quite like the nerds either. He’s got his own nuances — she can’t apply the same cookie cutter method that she can to the others, to him.

Either way, he’s cute. She can afford to put the effort in.

Ruby knows that MS is a progressive disease, with some high points, but a general downward trend. Her dad had had it for a year and change, and he hadn’t suffered anything too drastic, that is, until now. She’s at the mall with Olivia when her mother calls.

 _“Ruby, honey, I’ve got some bad news,”_ her mother’s voice says through the phone. She sounds exhausted.

Ruby stops in her tracks as she walks through the complex. Olivia stops too once she notices Ruby isn’t at her side anymore. They share a look of concern, and then Ruby turns away a bit, lowering her voice.

“What’s up?”

_“Your father is in the hospital.”_

Shit. “What happened?” She asks, feeling her breath start to quicken. Olivia rushes to her then, placing a hand on her arm. 

_What’s wrong?_ Olivia mouths to her. Ruby mouths back, _One second,_ and puts up her index finger to better indicate it.

 _“He’s had a fall. His leg is broken, and the doctors are telling me it might not heal completely because of his… condition.”_ After all this time, her mother still can’t bear to say its name. Normally, Ruby would chide her, but now is the worst time.

"Shit."

_“Can you come to the hospital? I know you’re at the mall with Olivia, but this is a bit of an emergency.”_

A year ago, Ruby would have loathed doing something like this, especially when there were monthly medical visits that her parents had to make. They never made her accompany them, but now she’s got a feeling that she _needs_ to be there.

“Of course, mum,” she says, her voice shaking slightly. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

_“Be quick.”_

Her mother ends the call, leaving Ruby with a feeling of dread, and a concerned Olivia waiting for her to speak.

“I have to go,” she says, feeling a chill run through her body. The bad kind.

“You need me to take you home?” Olivia asks, squeezing her arm. 

“To the hospital.”

Olivia frowns, but doesn’t ask. She takes Ruby by the hand and rushes them back to the parking lot. The ride there is silent, except for the directions Ruby gives Olivia for the hospital.

When they pull up to the entrance, Ruby doesn’t immediately get out. She simply sits there, not wanting to face the truth. Her father is getting worse. It was bound to happen. 

She feels a hand on hers, and she turns to see Olivia looking at her reassuringly. 

“Call me when everything’s okay, love,” the girl says. “Go on.”

Ruby nods and exits the car.

Ruby still feels groggy after spending a day and a half at the hospital. Her parents had tried to urge her to go to school instead of staying with her father, but she just couldn’t make herself leave. It’s not like they complained, anyway. She barely spends enough time with them as it is, and she’s been feeling a bit sentimental lately. Blame it on Milburn. 

The only way she’d been able to ignore the suffocating atmosphere of the hospital was by focusing on her father. She watched the TV with him, sat by his bed, did anything to stay by his side. She even refused to go to the bathroom until her mother basically dragged her.

She has always had a stronger bond with her dad than with her mum. They used to spend their weekends together, when her mother was either on a business trip, working late at the office, or glued to her desk at home. They’d do anything, from going to the zoo, to going to the park, to watching movies, anything either she or her dad could think of.

And while it hurt to have to see him in a gown and a cast, to know he is slowly losing control over his body, she also knows that it will never be clear just how much time she has left with him.

Her mother drives her back home so that she can gather her things for school, then she drives her to Moordale. She can already feel the dread at the prospect of having to deal with the superficiality of Moordale settling over her, but she knows her mother will flip her shit if she cuts.

She slogs through her classes, feeling the weight of her new knowledge slowing her thoughts and her body to a snail’s pace. The only thing she can think of is her father.

She endures a few snarky remarks from teachers for losing her attention in class, but she takes the complaints with a grain of salt. She wants Otis. She wants to tell him everything, to share her burden so that she doesn’t have to bear it alone. It’s killing her.

When the bell goes off, signaling the end of second block, Ruby nearly sprints out of the room and into the hall. She looks frantically through the halls, knowing where his locker is but not sure if that’s where he’s stationed. In the middle of her search, she runs into Olivia, who notices the look in her eye and asks, “Is everything all right?” 

“Have you seen Otis?” She asks by way of greeting. She scans the halls again, although fruitlessly. 

Olivia frowns. “Sex Kid? No. Why?”

Ruby sighs, rubbing her temples, trying to calm down. She knows she looks a bit psycho, but she _needs_ _Otis._

“I need to talk to him.”

Olivia looks at her like she’s from another planet, but only for a moment. After that, she puts on a small smile and says, “I’ll help you look.” She takes Ruby by the hand, and they start making their way down the hall.

It feels like they’re walking around for ages, but really the passing period isn’t even over. And still no Otis. 

Ruby’s about ready to give up and just go to English, but just before she submits completely to the idea, she sees Otis talking to someone. She immediately picks up her pace and drags Olivia along toward her goal. When the crowd thins around them, she notices that Otis’s conversational partner is Cock Biter. Otis is smiling at her, and he says something that she laughs at. Ruby pauses, feeling a rush of indignation. She thought he was over her. 

Olivia notices her hesitation and asks, “What’s going on?” 

“He’s talking to Maeve.” 

She can hear the confusion in Olivia’s voice when she asks, “So?”

Ruby steels herself. She’s not going to let that slag get in her way. “You’re right,” she says. Then she turns to Olivia, because she’s been sweet the last couple of days, and she owes her a few conversations’ worth of emotional support. “Thanks, love. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye,” Olivia says, already turning in the opposite direction. 

Ruby stalks toward them, trying to make it look like she _isn’t_ stalking, but she knows it probably looks like it anyway. “Otis,” she calls when she’s close enough. His gaze is ripped away from Maeve, directly to her. In his eyes is that same puppy-dog look that she’s gotten used to by now. She chooses to completely ignore Cock Biter because she doesn’t want to say something bitchy in front of him.

“What’s up?” He asks, turning toward her. Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby can see that Maeve looks just a _bit_ ticked.

“We need to talk. In private,” she says with staccato. He simply looks at her dumbly. “Please,” she adds, taking a small step forward, almost falling into him. She barely holds back from doing so.

“All right,” he agrees. He looks back at Maeve for a second and says, “I’ll get back to you on that.”

Ruby allows herself to smirk just a tiny bit. Then she taps Otis on the shoulder and starts walking quickly down the hall, knowing that he’s following her.

“Um, why are we here?” Otis asks once Ruby closes the bathroom door behind them. She remembers the last time they were in this bathroom, discussing how to get that photo of her vagina taken down. Maeve was there too. That feels like a lifetime ago.

“Why were you talking to Maeve?” Is what she says first instead of _My dad’s in the hospital._

“Why do you care?” Otis asks, sounding a bit miffed. He’s walking toward the far wall, slinging his backpack off of his shoulders and onto the floor. She can’t answer that question, really. She can’t say “because you’re my boyfriend” because he’s not really her boyfriend. So why _does_ she care? Does she want him to be?

“You’re going to get germs on it like that,” she points out instead of answering his question. Otis picks up the bag again and hangs it on a hook on the inside of one of the stall doors. 

“So is the reason why we’re here that you were jealous about Maeve?” Otis asks, his full attention finally on her. Ruby recoils slightly in surprise. She’s about to argue back when he starts again. “Because it’s not like that.”

Ruby’s bitchy side wants to argue. She wants to prolong this little spat so that Otis likes her less, because he’s a nerd and she’s an Untouchable. But Ruby’s rational, emotional side wants to do what she had originally set out to do: tell him about her dad.

“That’s not the reason,” she admits. Her voice is soft, shy. Everything that she, outwardly, is not.

Otis notices this, his barely-there anger fading and giving way to a concerned look. He walks up to her and stuffs his hands in his pockets.

“What is the reason, then?”

“My…” Ruby tries, but she can’t quite say it. She knows she wants to, but the words are leaden in her throat. “You have to promise not to tell anyone this, all right?” 

“You know I wouldn’t,” Otis insists.

“Yeah, I know,” Ruby says. Come on. Out with it, girl. She takes a deep breath. “My dad’s in the hospital.”

Otis’s eyes widen. “What happened?”

“He fell.” Ruby looks down at the ground. It’s getting harder to face him by the moment. “He broke his leg.”

“Is he gonna be okay?” Otis asks. She can feel his gaze on the top of her head. There’s the beginning of a lump forming in her throat. 

“It might not heal properly, because of his MS. He might… he might need a wheelchair.”

“Bloody hell,” Otis breathes. “I’m sorry, Ruby.”

Ruby breathes heavily. She’s on the verge, she knows. “I don’t want him to die,” she says, knowing she sounds like she’s begging, and what’s the point of that? People die whether or not people hope they don’t. “It would kill me if he did.”

When she looks up at him, he’s blurry. But she can still tell by his body language, and his uh-ing and um-ing that she has put him in a difficult spot. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he also doesn’t want to tell her the truth. Ruby knows the truth and she knows the lie she wants to believe.

“Just tell me everything’s going to be alright,” she says, to save him from confusion, on the edge of blubbering through her tears.

Otis puts his hands on her shoulders, looks her square in the eye, and says in his softest voice: “Everything’s going to be alright, Ruby.”

She plunges her head into his chest, finally crying. It’s beyond embarrassing to cry in front of Otis, but she knows he would never tell anyone that this happened, not even Eric.

She shakes with each sob, and Otis wraps his arms around her back, hugging her gently and resting his head on top of hers. His embrace is calming, absorbent of her emotions and exactly what she needs after the emotional roller coaster that the last two days had been. 

Ruby’s arms snake their way around Otis’s waist, clasping together and keeping him tethered to her. She feels the fabric of his t-shirt getting wet with her tears, but he isn’t letting her go so that she can wipe them off. She’s enveloped in his body, his smell… This is the exact kind of mushy that she tries to stay away from in her romantic (hell, even sexual) exploits. But with Otis, it feels more natural than anything else.

“God, I’m sorry,” she suddenly says, her voice muffled by his shirt. 

“For what?” His chest rumbles with his words, and Ruby leans into the feeling. It’s soothing. 

“Treating you like an emotional support dog.”

“I don’t mind getting cried on every once in a while,” Otis assures. 

“That’s a weird kink,” she jokes. “Heh.”

“Shut up,” Otis says, but he’s laughing too. She latches onto that feeling, of his shoulders rising and falling, the sound of his chuckle like white noise to her ears.

She sheds a few more tears, but her eyes are nearly dry. When she’s done, she pulls her face out of his chest and wipes her eyes and nose against the sleeves of her jacket. 

“Thanks,” she says, and Otis lets go of her shoulders. 

“Got you any time,” he replies. Ruby glares at him, and his smile only grows with each second. She rolls her eyes to get away from that devilish grin.

“So,” she says, pretending to inspect her nails, “Do you still like Maeve?”

Otis chuckles. She fixes him with another glare, but he’s still smiling. “You serious?” He asks.

She nods her head once. _On with it._

“ _No,_ Ruby. For God’s sake.” Otis looks to be tired of her antics, and though Ruby is herself, she understands how ridiculous she’s being. Then he gets a funny look in his eye. It throws her off guard, and she frowns at him, before he leans down and kisses her. The way he swoops down is rushed, but his kiss is slow and meaningful. Ruby leans into it, wrapping her arms around his neck and keeping him there.

This is bliss, quiet and belonging to them only. Otis is in a league of his own compared to any of the other guys Ruby has been with, if she can even say she’s been with them. And if these feelings that he gives her are an added bonus, she’s not complaining for a second.

When he pulls away, his blue eyes are glowing in the gray light sneaking through a gap in the window and he’s smiling confidently. Ruby has to catch her breath, keeping her hands knit together behind his neck for balance.

“I like you, Ruby.” Then the smile fades and his gaze softens, shedding the airs of self-assuredness to ask a compromising question: “Do you like me?”

She smiles warmly and pulls him back down for a chaste kiss.

“I like you fine, Otis.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all enjoyed that! seriously, i'm sorry for going MIA for this fandom. i guess i was severely demotivated by the lack of fics like mine, centered around otis and ruby. but that's what i'm here for, right? to motivate others? to give the people what they want? yeah. sounds about right. if you liked this story, leave a comment telling me what you liked or at least a kudos to tell me you appreciated it! your feedback and comments are sweet music to me. thank you all for reading. and thank you all for WAITING. i hope everyone stays safe in this trying time.


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